A MURDER trial was shown CCTV footage of three teenage boys accused of killing a man behind a Liverpool supermarket.

The video showed the three defendants, two aged 14 and one aged 16, hanging around Walton between 2am and 5.30am on the day rough sleeper Kevin Bennett was allegedly beaten to death.

Mr Bennett, 53, was found badly injured behind Iceland in Walton Road on August 17 last year and died six days later in hospital.

The grainy CCTV footage of three young suspects, who cannot be named, was gleaned by murder detectives from council Citywatch cameras and private CCTV systems in shops.

Alan Conrad QC, prosecuting, played the footage over the course of yesterday afternoon while DC Tracy O’Hara explained to jurors what they were seeing. The first person to appear was Mr Bennett, who left the Queens Arms pub in Walton Road at 1.10am carrying a plastic bag full of beer cans and was shown walking off in the direction of Iceland.

Then just after 2am the 16-year-old and one of the 14-year-olds were shown arriving at Westminster Road, near Walton Road, where they went into an off licence.

The third defendant, also 14, was seen in Walton Road a couple hours later with 42-year-old Linda Doran, of Teulon Close, Anfield, who is charged with perverting the course of justice.

By 5.20am the three boys had joined up and were caught on camera at a nearby Texaco garage and at a McDonald’s restaurant.

DC O’Hara played footage taken from a camera on the wall of Loans To Go which showed Christopher Street – behind Iceland – at around 5.30am, when the attack is said to have taken place. She said: “One of the males is seen standing on scaffolding and remains there until the next image. Then he jumps down across the other side of the fence and remains there for a while.

“We see a figure drop from the scaffolding effectively into the grounds of Iceland.

“When the males come out from behind there a third male joins them. They seem to be looking down at his feet. He has his leg outstretched. The two other boys are looking at the lower half of his leg.”

The small figures were then seen to run off up the road. Around 10 minutes later a figure identified as Mr Bennett emerged from behind the wall and walked off in the direction of the place he was found the next morning.

The prosecution case is that this footage shows one boy acting as a look-out as Mr Bennett was beaten and the defendants looking at his blood on their shoes.

Liverpool crown court was also read a statement from paramedic Richard Evans, who treated Mr Bennett at 8.10am.

He said: “There was a male standing in a small area of car park against a wall. I could see he was holding a can of Carling lager in his right hand.

“He had a large amount of swelling to his face and head. He was bleeding from the left side of his face. He appeared to be in a bad way.

“I spoke to the male and asked him what happened. He told me he had been attacked.

“He said he had been assaulted by approximately 10 males, two of which had bats. He said the attack happened at the back of Iceland.

“He complained of pain in his head and said he could not breathe properly.”

Mr Bennett had broken ribs, a collapsed lung and fractured eye socket and died from blood poisoning on August 23.